Application of Technology, Knowledge and Practice from other Sectors

Overview

This landscaping project carried out a study of the technological challenges facing the wave energy sector and the cross-sector potential for technology transfer. Technology transfer could relate to fundamental physical principles, to knowledge or know-how, to adaptation of existing technology or to direct use of existing technology. As a result, a number of possibilities that could create substantial opportunities for the wave energy sector were identified, including adaptable structures technologies for survivability; structural design optimisation technologies; and powertrain technologies.

Benchmarking of the existing wave energy sector revealed a number of sub-system technology areas with large potential for improvement including: the control system, the WEC structure, the power-take-off (PTO) and the foundations and/or moorings.